This 1948 photo shows Toledo Pythians shoulder arms in the Jubilee Parade in Toledo. The drill team of Ramadam Temple, Dramatic Order, Knights of Khorassan, swings down Jefferson Avenue with Irving P. Miller, from Lambertville, Mich., captain, at far right.

Written by

Tom Henry
The Toledo Blade

Downtown Toledo's crumbling Pythian Castle is, in some ways, a metaphor for America's declining participation in its service organizations.

Although the nation's population is larger than it was generations ago, many fraternal organizations and similar groups have declined since the 1960s.

Freemasonry membership, for example, has slipped since it peaked at 4.1 million members in America in 1959. Its latest domestic tally of 1.3 million members in 2011, the most recent figures available, hit a new low, according to figures posted online by the Masonic Service Association of North ...